Monday, 24 June 2013

The WarGods of Olympus kickstarter is entering its final week, the $25,000 target has been smashed, 4 factions have been funded to go along with the Spartans, Myceneans and Titans. Nine new demigods have been sculpted and the road to Troy is open!

I have gone with my get and pledged in for an Amazon army, I was in two minds for that or just a selection of the demigods but seeing Debs Fitzpatrick's awesome jobs on the tester models, I knew I had to get them!

I'm pledging for the miniatures only Warband option, we'll receive pdfs of all three WarGods rulebooks so I can spend the extra money on moar toyz; 2 Demigods, 3 Heroes, 2 Honour Guards, 2 Command Group models, 15 Spearmen, 12 Peltasts, 10 Archers, 1 Titan Hunter and 1 Oracle... that should keep me going as a nice project for later in the year I think.

The next stretch goal is only $1,500 away, it unlocks the Bronze Automatons of Hephestus:

Lets hope we can get that far, but at $125,000 we all receive a free Helen of Troy model, lets all get that!﻿

Saturday, 22 June 2013

This was a great model to paint up, not as good as Ayako, who I maintain is one of the best models available on the market, but still really good. Takeji is an important model for the expanding Ito range, he bridges the gap between the badass but expensive samurai's and the cheap grunts in the Bushi's, and enhances Satoshi's Ashigaru based buffs by bringing a good cheap hitter!

Saturday, 15 June 2013

I've just finished painting up the starter set for the Neo-Iskandrian force for Urban War. They are partially for myself to game with and also for Cymbeline Games to use as a demo set as Urban War is a line Tom is looking at to possibly stock.

I've played a couple of games of it so far and have quite enjoyed it, its an easy to grasp yet difficult to master Scifi skirmish game set in a distant galaxy. The Neo-Iskandrians are the fanatical followers of Iskander the Tyrant, and have slept in hibernation for 300yrs to retake his empire from the Tripartite Alliance that defeated him long ago:

Companions with Carbines

Companion Marksman﻿

Companion Sergeant

Companion with Xyston

These models are huge, those are 40mm bases they are on! Urban Mammoth's John informed me the battle armour is needed to keep them alive following so long a period of hibernation, and gives strength to their wasted limbs!

I downloaded the Neo-Isk sourcebook from the Urban Mammoth site, its a great read and a bargain at £5, its got all the rules for the faction along with the profiles of the unreleased models... the release rate is really good and most of the force will be out by September.

As time allows i'll be adding to the set to make a 300pt force up, ive had some good advice from John and Roland on the forums so should have a decent force to expand to haha. ﻿

Sunday, 9 June 2013

My stepson Jacob like's playing with little plastic n metal men just like me, he has armies for warpath and he bought himself an Orcnar starter set to learn to play Relics against my Nuem. I was involved in the kickstarter campaign and pledged a decent amount of money to help get the new models developed, and when the Ruina failed to unlock as some people pulled out, I used the money allocated for them to get him some reinforcements for his boys..... and he has finally finished painting them!

Commanders - Beorn and two Niwans

Docgas﻿

Eiotan Rifans

Grymann

Spatga

Unnmann

He has 3 more Unnmanns comin from Cymbeline games this week, when they arrive and painted he'll have a 400pt force! Nice one little man!﻿

Friday, 7 June 2013

The year has flown by! My girls are 14 months old, I'm in a new job and my fiancé is starting up her own admin assistance business called Earlybirdy!

As I mentioned in a previous update, I started the year with 139 models left over from 2012... its now down to 12 haha, just 12 Daikinee then ive cleared the lead mountain and i'll be right on track to end the year paint free.

These last 6 months ive added a lot of goodies to my Nuem army, painted up 4 factions for Bushido, developed a new way to paint my farrow (planning to repaint the older lot next year) and ive begun to do some really nice single models to put in a display cabinet at home,

Ive painted 189 models, 69 less than last year and we are only half way through! I wont be reaching the dizzy heights of days of yore when I completed such tasks as 250 KoW Undead in 3 days, or my 500 strong Ork 40k army over a year, but I think I can get close to the 300 mark.

An update on targets, I have sold on my KoW Undead, Covenant DW, Rense Navy FA and Thaniras Elves US fleets. They were enjoyable projects but I wanted some new challenges, especially for KoW as my Undead were undefeated for 3yrs haha. I will return to that game in the future but im waiting for a force to catch my eye. Im planning on taking up the Australian fleet or the French land force for DW, the club will be rocking a campaign later in the year so they can wait for a while.

The Convergeance will be appearing in the near future so im "gearing" up for them by getting as many toys painted before hand as I can. I have all the initial release toys on order so am allocating 2 months to get them done. The chaps at GW Bluewater were very helpful in advice for colours on a brass scheme for them as I haven't done much in that tone before.

All in all its been a productive year for us, more plans are in the works and I shall expand upon them as they come to fruition, but its going to be an exciting back run for 2013!

Tuesday, 4 June 2013

Crocodile Games have begun a kickstarter campaign to fund the release of the Trojan faction and the Wargods of Olympus rulebook!﻿

Many people have heard of Crocodile games, started by ex-GW sculptor Chris Fitzpatrick back in 2001. It began with Wargods of Aegyptus and followed with the Wendigo expansion from Hyperborea a few years ago. The games are big in the USA but not well represented in the UK, hopefully this campaign will change that.

Its been going a few days now, busting the initial funding within 2 days so the Trojans and book are sorted! The preview sculpts by Chris and painted by his wife Debs are shown below, I think they are great, and the paint job really sets them off:

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The leaders of the Aeyptus armies are the Harbringers, badass characters with godly powers... and the Greeks don't miss out, as there are a range of Demigods to lead your chosen force, one from each of the main Greek Gods such as Athena and Poseidon shown below. They are 35mm scale so they are bigger than the average grunt or hero so they standout. All are great sculpts, and I look forward to seeing the whole range of them!

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Along side these there are a range of more earthly heroes for each faction such as King Leonidas for the Spartans and Prince Aenas for the Trojans. Croc hope to get Paris and Hector funded for the Trojans too.

The next faction for the Olympus setting, the Amazons, has also been funded, and some previews of a spear armed warrior and the starter box hero have been shown. These are my favourite Croc sculpts to date and im sorely tempted to pledge for them!

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Playtest rules for the Olympus factions can be found on the Croc site here

I have an Aeyptus book on order from Black Pyramid games so I can see what its all about and do a decent review of the system, but for now i'll wish Croc the best of luck for the campaign ahead :-D﻿